Breakthrough

Chapter 6: Arena of Blood

"Right. We need to decide on a group to go to each location, I think certain people will be better suited for certain areas." Brooke said after explaining that she had found traces of an element via her necklace.

A show of hands shot up into the air, basically everyone but Damien who still looked very apprehensive to this whole plan.

"Well there's no way Ava can go, she's too nervous for stuff like this. No offence Ava." Rosie quickly patted the blonde's shoulder and felt bad for saying that.

"And we can't let complete strangers go!" Kasper chimed in.

Lucille looked at him passively and shook her head.

"Okay, okay! Let's not argue. I'm only gonna take one of you, I need people keeping an eye on these two." Brooke eyed Lucille and Damien wearily.

Rosie stepped forward proudly, "Then it's my time to shine!"

Luke appeared beside Brooke, "I agree. Rosie will help keep me in check anyways." He scratched his cheek meekly while laughing.

Brooke nodded and seemed satisfied.

"Okay you two," She looked at Ava and Kasper, "Make sure Lucille and Damien don't get up to anything weird while we are gone. We shouldn't be too long if all goes well." The girl motioned for Luke and Rosie to come closer while fiddling with her necklace.

Lucille sat down and opened her book without another word. Damien sat back down with Kasper and continued playing cards. Ava on the other hand quickly rushed up and hugged both Luke and Rosie.

"Be safe!!" She said sternly and both of them looked a little shocked to see her use force in her words.

"Here we go. See ya later!" A warm green glow emanated around the three of them, and a flash of light appeared, when it cleared they had vanished.

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Heavy metal and rock music assaulted Luke's ears the second the light in front of them vanished. His legs felt like jelly and marshmallow at the same time, he even felt slightly sick.

"You two okay? That was your first time teleporting, huh? Oh, we aren't in your world anymore so act like you've seen this before." Brooke didn't wait for any answers and took the lead, walking towards the front desk of the building they were now in.

It was a large, open arena type of building, the music that had threatened to burst Luke's eardrums bounced off of the walls and was accompanied by flashing strobe lights of varying colours. The walls were mainly black, with stands and seats all surrounding the middle of the building, where a large circular arena stood with a chain link fence all around it trapping anyone in the boundaries of the circle inside.

Rosie had subconsciously gripped Luke's hand feeling quite anxious in such a loud and threatening looking place. The older boy squeezed her hand reassuringly and pulled her over to where Brooke had gone, not wanting to get separated from their tour guide.

"That's the only way? Fine." Brooke turned around after talking to the cashier and faced the Wilson siblings. "The elemental source we are after is the prize for winning tonight's competition."

"So, we're in your world now? Are elemental sources common prizes?" Luke asked curiously.

Brooke shook her head, "No, in fact this is the first I've heard of."

Their talking gained the conversation of a girl around Rosie's size who was leaned up against the wall behind them.

"Ya looking to enter? Bit brave of you." She spoke with a slight accent. She looked very emo/alt-like. Her hair was blacked with dyed in purple streaks that went down past her shoulders. She wore alot of piercings and makeup too. To be honest, she looked cool.

"Brave? Whys that?" Rosie questioned her while Luke and Brooke listened in.

The girl shrugged, "Well you know the rules. You have to be the last man, or woman, standing. Only psychopaths enter the tournament."

Rosie felt a lump rise in her throat.

"Wait, this competition for the elemental source requires you to kill all the other competitors to win?!" Luke shouted out of shock.

"That's what I said. So, you the one entering?" The girl looked at Luke up and down, almost as if sizing him up.

Luke turned to look at an apologetic Brooke. She felt awful for not warning him how harsh her world could be, and she certainly didn't want him to have to take a life. But they didn't have a choice anymore.

"Rosie isn't a killer, and I don't have the strength to win this thing. Luke, you're the only one who can aquire this thing. I'm so sorry, but we are out of options..."

Luke's face was stony and unmoving. Several things were running through his head, could he really take a life in order to gather something that would help him save the world?

"I'll do it."

The three girls looked at him with unease.

"Alright, well, you sign up at the front desk. Good luck." The emo girl turned and walked down the aisle towards a seat to sit down.

Luke had NO intention of killing anyone, he had decided upon finding a loophole through this during the match. 

After signing all the paperwork and reading through the terms and conditions, Luke was enrolled as a member into the tournament. As fate would have it, his turn was next up.

"Look, just keep calm. You've got this..." Brooke patted his shoulder.

"Be careful bro. And...don't let this get to you, it's for the fate of the world.." Rosie was trembling slightly.

Luke was amazed they were letting him go through with this and believed Rosie didn't want to add more problems to the plate, hence her not intervening.

Both girls headed over to their alloted seats and sat down. Luke walked the other way towards the waiting rooms. After signing his life away he found out he was only fighting one person, the champion of the arena. If he won, he automatically got the elemental source, not to mention kept his life.

Looking back at the hand that had held Adamas earlier, he felt newfound courage and invigoration flowing through him. He wasn't going to kill anyone today, no matter what happened him in the process.

"OUR NEXT CHALLENGER! LUKE WILSON VS OUR REIGNING CHAMPION, LEWIS TRITON!!!"

Luke's blood turned to ice after hearing the champions name.